Who, in your opinion, are the best sports announcers, commentators, analysts, etc. who used to be professional players?
And, to expand the discussion a bit, who’s not so good? Who’s a current player who you think would be good in the booth (or studio)?
I like Charles Barkley. His whole career he was never one to hold his tongue, and though I don’t always agree with the things he says, he’s always entertaining.
Shaq, OTOH, just ain’t any good. He just sits there, being big. He just has nothing to contribute. Maybe he’ll get better as he does it longer, but right now he’s a waste of space.
Trent Dilfer was not a good quarterback by any standard, but he’s a surprisingly good football analyst.
For good, I vote Mike Golic. I really enjoy his perspective as a kind of journeyman type player.
I also really like Chris Collinsworth.
eta: But really, now that I think about it, John McEnroe is awesome, and it’s pretty surprising in light of his career.
Probably not what you had in mind, but Cowboy Bill Watts was an excellent color commentator on his wrestling programs.
Walt “Clyde” Frazier has a very “love it or hate it” style, but I made it through a lot of wretched Knicks season simply because I enjoy listening to his commentary.
The all-time best was the late Al Derogatis. Current, I’ll go with Ron Darling.
Mike Hegan, an ex-major leaguer who did color commentary for the Cleveland Indians for many years, was very good. Smooth announcing skills and very knowledgeable about the game.
Regrettably, he retired a couple of years ago, and died just a year later.
Preceding him was Herb Score, who was a few notches below in his skills (and who faltered somewhat in his final years) but was much beloved by Indians fans.
Yes and yes. I really miss the guys having an ex-player in the booth with them. Mike Hargrove would be fun but he is not the right voice (he’s sat in a few times).
Hawk Harrelson is the best announcer in sports
You can put it on the boooooaaaard! Yes!
One of my very favorites is Gary Danielson, former QB for the Detroit Lions. In my opinion he might very well be the best “color commenator” right now for my FAVORITE sport, college (American) football.
My favorite color commentators that qualify:
Cris Collinsworth
Greg Anthony
Steve Kerr (for a few more days, anyway)
Play-by-play: I can’t think of any off the top of my head – good or bad.
As far as the worst…I don’t know, for sure, as my interest in sports, in general, has waned considerably in recent years, but one thing that REALLY annoys me is ESPN’s coverage of international soccer (meaning: tournaments involving national teams). First of all, I don’t think that most “Merkans” do a particularly good job of calling soccer games, period. They just seem to come off, to me, as not particularly knowledgeable about the sport. Second, just about every announcer on ESPN talks the USMNST up as if it’s won the amount of World Cup titles Brasil has and should expect to win at least that many more. Clearly they’re living in some sort of fantasy land when saying things like that. But what annoys me even more than THAT is that there is ONE team that the soccer folks at ESPN seem to suck the d*cks of even more than the USMNST’s, and it happens to be one that has NEVER been one of my favorites (to say the VERY least): Germany’s. I have become so annoyed with all of this that I watch international soccer matches on ESPN nowadays only when I can’t catch them on Spanish language television (my Spanish isn’t great - even though I’m ½ Chilean - but I can still generally get the gist of what’s being said in Spanish during soccer games). Sometimes, if I can’t catch the game on Spanish-language television, then I just don’t bother watching it at all (if it’s a game - even one during a tournament - that I didn’t have all that much interest in in the first place).
The only other announcer I’m willing to “call out” for being one of my least-favorite right now is Shaquille O’Neal. I hardly ever watch basketball these days but the few snippets I’ve caught of “Shaq” talking have been embarrassing in the extreme. I never thought much of him as a player (yeah, I know - probably not the majority view for those of you who are basketball fans) and I think even less of him as a human being. Matter of fact, MOST of the time - on the rare occasions that it actually happens - that Shaq appears on my T.V. screen I have a visceral reaction, and that reaction is to either turn the volume down, change the channel, or just plain turn the T.V. off. Simply put - I can’t stand to look at or listen to that S.o.B.
I think Troy Aikmen is really good.
I love listening to Tracy Austin, Mary Carillo, and Jim Courier in tennis. Tracy is just excellent at explaining what she is seeing in the players’ technique, how they are trying to hit the ball, what they should be doing, etc. The other two are great at being funny, talking about the player strategies and histories, and just being generally entertaining.
Another vote for Cris Collinsworth.
Probably showing a bit of bias towards my favorite team, but I’ve always really enjoyed Craig Laughlin’s color commentary for the Washington Capitals. He’s natural, personable, funny, has a good sense of humor and really always seems to be having fun. Plus, he knows his shit.
Jerry Remy calling Red Sox games. The Rem-Dawg and Don Orsillo are the best baseball announcing team, hands down.
The Blue Jays radio crew last year included Jack Morris. He was fabulous; insightful, honest, willing to call it as he saw it. He’d say three things every game that actually taught me something. He left, sadly. Another ex-pitcher who was always really insightful was Al Leiter.
My standard for good color commentary is does this guy demonstrate the fact he knows more about the sport than I do? A former player, obviously, knows a thousand things I do not, but is he smart enough to bring it up when it happens? Leiter was great at explaining mechanical problems in what players were doing, things most people would never be able to see but when he pointed them out you’d be like “hey, look at that, he’s right.”
The TV crew for years has been Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler. I have no idea how they keep their jobs. Tabler, especially, is so vapid that you’d never know the man played major league baseball. He’s been doing to job for over a decade and has never said anything of value or insight. His comments are stuff like “the Blue Jays could really use a hit here.”
Sounds like Rick Manning, TV for the Indians. I mean, he’s not as bad as Joe Morgan or anyone who’s offensively bad, and I’m used to him, but he doesn’t add much of interest to any conversation.
At the national level, Chris Webber and Steve Kerr are both quite good, and Charles Barkley is an all-timer.